I'm Sorry/Gonbee no I'm Sorry
FAQ version 1.2
By James Irish
[email protected]
Started on 7/14/03
Last Updated on 7/17/03
>Table of Contents<
1. Legal Information and Disclaimer
2. Introduction
3. Gameplay
4. Your Enemies
5. Scoring
6. Strategies
7. Updates
8. Acknowledgements
>Legal Information and Disclaimer<
The various characters and concepts found herein are the copyrights and
trademarks of Sega of Japan, the publisher, and Coreland, the developer. This
FAQ is in no way an attempt to pass off these creations of satire as mine.
Everything else found in this FAQ is Copyright 2003 James Irish. Any attempt to
reproduce this FAQ without my express written or typed permission, except for
personal, private use, is strictly forbidden and is in direct violation of this
copyright.
The following sites have permission to host this FAQ.
www.gamefaqs.com
www.cheats.de
>Introduction<
I'm still completely amazed that this piece of Japanese satire and strangeness
was actually released here in the United States. I have serious doubts that the
average U.S. arcade rat could possibly know that the protagonist in this little
maze game was a caricature of a former Japanese Prime Minister, unless they were
taking lessons in Japanese language or culture. I certainly didn't when I first
encountered this strange piece of work on the recommendation of Robbie "Yamcha
Hibiki" Allen. It wasn't until July of 2003 that I found out that the title is
actually a play on the Japanese word for Prime Minister, Sori, and that the
little ugly spud of a man is supposed to be a super-deformed (big head, small
body) version of Kakuei Tanaka, or a lookalike. Furthermore, it turns out that
Mr. Tanaka was rather infamous for his plutocracy.
*Plutocracy* Noun: A form of government where wealth is the principal basis of
power.
Which explains a lot about this game. But first...
I'm Sorry came out in 1985, was also released in Japan as Gonbee no I'm Sorry in
the same year. I'm not sure which came first, but it's probably safe to assume
that the Japanese version hit first given the subject matter. It was developed
by Coreland and released by Sega. It presumably was a victim of both it's odd
subject matter and the really short shelf life of games at the time in arcades,
with it being released the exact year after the infamous Video Game Crash of
1984. There have been no home versions of this game that I am aware of.
>Gameplay<
As Kakuei Tanaka, or his doppelganger, you're out to collect gold. It's all
laying around waiting for you to take it, but getting to it is the tricky part.
There are all kinds of obstacles in the way and opponents waiting to stop you,
or else it wouldn't be much of a video game, would it? To deal with all these,
Kakuei can both jump and attack, either a punch or a slap with a paper fan
depending on the level. There does not seem to be any overt difference in the
strength of these attacks. If Kakuei is hit by anything, he loses a life, and he
has to start collecting the gold all over again.
To grab gold, just walk over it. Kakuei will smile and a word balloon will show
you how much your current stash is worth. The more gold you have, the greater
the value of it in total. Bring it to the big, official looking building at the
top of the screen, and you get that many points added to your score. You have 3
minutes in each level to do this, and you get bonus points for each second left
on the clock. See the scoring section below for full details.
All the levels feature two warp tunnels, one on the left and one on the right,
which connect the top and bottom halves of the screen.
This is how the levels play out:
#1 is three walkways separated by walls and doors. These doors take 6 punches to
break down. There are also 4 "secret service" men here, and a rolling barrel.
More on the enemies behavior later.
#2 is a more grassy, suburban area with a pond in the lower right side of the
screen, with 2 little rocks in it. You can jump onto the rocks, but don't fall
into the water or you lose a life! This level also features a statue of you that
will come to life if you get too close to it, but returns to it's post if you
can manage to get it to walk past it again. This level only has 3 secret service
folks and again that rolling barrel.
#3 is sort of a downtown area, with ATMs hiding much of the gold. To break into
an ATM, you need to punch it X times. Three secret service people, that darn
rolling barrel, and now a clone of famous Japanese pro wrestler Giant Baba. I
think.
#4 is... it's red. I guess it's another style of suburbia. This has a smaller
pond in the bottom left portion of the screen, again with rocks to jump on. Like
before, don't fall in the water! There are also a few red objects that will
shoot a short burst of fire at you at regular intervals, so avoid those like the
plague. Two
#5 is a rehash of the first level, this time with a conveyer belt in the middle
portion of the screen between the outer and inner walkways. Two Giant Babas, two
Michael Jacksons and again with the barrel.
#6 is essentially #2 with a one conveyer belt, some fire shooters, and two
statues instead of one. The rocks in the pond will gradually shrink, taking the
gold on them with them. A Giant Baba, two Michael Jacksons, and some athlete
person are your other problems to deal with, in addition to the usual barrel.
#7 is #3 with fire shooters, two long conveyer belts, and now 2 athletes,
Michael Jackson and Giant Baba, plus that dang barrel. There's also more ATMs, 7
in total. Next to the ATM in the upper right corner, a little box with a pile of
treasure will sometimes appear. This treasure is worth a lot, but it all depends
on how much of it there is, and that amount will go down after a while.
#8 revises #4 with the fire shooters moved around, two conveyer belts, and the
rocks in the pond shrinking so that one is maximum size while the other is
hidden. The secret service returns with 2 agents, alongside Giant Baba, the
barrel, and the debut of Madonna.
#9 returns us to #1 once again, and now both conveyer belts are on the middle
walkway. That makes breaking into the doors much harder this time. Compounding
matters is that there are three athletes, a Michael Jackson, and TWO barrels!
#10 brings us back to the suburban setting of #2, only the rocks are sinking out
of synch with each other and there are three fire shooters and two conveyer
belts. A Madonna, two statues, two Giant Babas, a Michael Jackson and two
barrels are your competition.
#11 revisits #3 and ups the number of ATMs to a whopping 8. Not only that, but
there are 3 conveyer belts to be found here, making getting into one ATM a
tremendous chore. Two athletes, two barrels, a Michael Jackson and a Giant Baba
are here to come after you, and there are two fire shooters to contend with as
well.
There's at least one more after this, of course, but I honestly have yet to get
to be able to survive that long.
>Your Enemies<
What a strange bunch these guys are. You have a secret service agent who goes
dominatrix on you and beats you with a riding crop; Giant Baba trying to slam
you; Michael Jackson acting like a freak well before any of the controversy
surrounding him and freakish behavior; some decathlon athlete jumping around; a
barrel straight out of another game; and a statue of our protagonist that seems
to have it out for him, too. Much later levels introduce a Madonna-esque woman
who breaths fireballs after jumping around for a few seconds, so watch out if
she does that. I don't know what brought this motley crew together, but it
would seem none of them much care for plutocracy, wouldn't it?
The secret service agents, Madonnas and Michael Jackson clones both go down with
one hit. Giant Baba needs several hits to make him go away, and that number
seems to vary from time to time. The leaping athlete goes down with just one
hit, but you need to time it just right. The barrel, on the other hand, is
invincible, and the statue can only be stunned for a few seconds, so it's best
to just jump over them or avoid them altogether, especially since death is not a
pretty thing in this game at all.
Anyhow, the enemies don't seem to seek you out directly 100 percent of the time.
Sometimes, they'll be about to turn, and you'll be on one side they can turn to,
but they'll go to the other side. Otherwise, it just takes one touch for them to
get you and take away a life.
>Scoring<
Bring 1 Gold Bar to the house - 100 points
Bring 2 Gold Bars to the house - 300 points
Bring 3 Gold Bars to the house - 600 points
Bring 4 Gold Bars to the house - 1000 points
Bring 5 Gold Bars to the house - 1600 points
Bring 6 Gold Bars to the house - 2500 points
Bring 7 Gold Bars to the house - 3900 points
Bring 8 Gold Bars to the house - 5500 points
Bring 9 Gold Bars to the house - 7400 points
Bring 10 Gold Bars to the house - 9999 points
Defeat a secret service agent, athlete, Madonna or Michael Jackson - 200 points
Every attack landed against Giant Baba - 200 points
Stun the statue - 200 points
Get the statue to return to its base - 1500 points
Every remaining second on the clock once you clear a level - 20 points
Each time you punch the treasure pile while there is still treasure in it – 2000
points
Extra life won at 30,000 points
>Strategies<
Your enemies will not follow you into the warp tunnels, so take good advantage
of that. Even the jumping enemies won't follow into the ponds, too, so jumping
onto the rocks makes a nice escape method.
While on the conveyer belts going in the opposite direction of their operation,
jumping will speed you up considerably. This will put some good distance between
you and your enemies for a short time, especially on longer belts.
You can attack downward through walls and hit your enemies. Doing this is a boon
on the levels with doors and ATMs, since you'll be stopped for a short while and
this will clear part of the space around you. This won't work with attacking
upward, though.
When you turn a corner, it still takes you a few seconds to be clear of the path
you were traveling, so an enemy of some sort can still catch you as you’re
turning. Try to keep as much space between you and your foes as possible.
>Updates<
7/17/03: Added levels 10 and 11, plus a little more to both the gameplay and the
strategies sections.
7/16/03: First major update, with new stuff across the board, including
strategies, information for levels 7-9, the Madonna enemy, and the warp tunnels.
Oh, yeah, and this Update section. SECOND UPDATE: Fixed some painful text goof-
ups.
7/14/03: First version! Everything is new.
>Acknowledgements<
Robbie "Yamcha Hibiki" for introducing me to this game, and is thus responsible
for scaring me for life. Just kidding, Robbie!
www.klov.com for much of the information in this FAQ about the game's subject
matter.
www.onelook.com for helping me find the definition of plutocracy.
